West Sound Technology Association booted
up the CoderDojo this spring as a nomadic program,
offering courses at different places around the county. The
partnership with WWU will give coders a consistent meeting
space.

West Sound Coder Dojo’s first class at the WWU center in
Poulsbo will take place at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, July 11.
Tickets are free but registration is required.

The state has given the green light for the
first recreational marijuana store inside Bremerton city
limits.

The Liquor Control Board
issued a license Thursday to Pacific Cannabis Company. The
shop will be located at 625 N Callow Ave., next door to China
Wok.

City permit documents indicate another pot shop is planned
for Callow, though a state license hasn’t been issued yet. The
Liquor Control Board will allow only two recreational
marijuana retail licenses within city limits, barring a rule
change.

A shop called
HWY 420 opened in October on Charleston Beach Road, just
outside city limits.

Pacific Cannabis is the sixth licensed retailer in Kitsap
County. A shop called Paper and Leaf opened on Bainbridge this
week.

The state also approved another marijuana producer for
Kitsap Thursday. The grower, called Lano, will be located
at 12363 Clear Creek Road in Silverdale.

Lano is the eighth producer approved in the county. Expand the
map above to see all the locations,
or click here.

The busy summer hiring season is shaping up to be even busier
than usual in Kitsap this year.

About 87,800 people were working for employers within Kitsap
County in May, according to statistics from the state Employment
Security Department. That was the largest number of jobs
reported in the county since July of 2009:

Job levels in the county have been elevated all year.
About 2,500 more people were working for Kitsap employers in May
2015 than in May 2014. The private sector accounted for about 1,900
of those added jobs, while 600 came from government
agencies.

Mike Hale said the
brewery already had plans for a satellite distribution and
storage warehouse in Bremerton. While setting up the
warehouse, Hale and his partners decided they might as
well open a “simple tasting room” on the corner.

Hale said the mix of businesses should make for a busy,
“beer-centric” hub.

Hale’s Ales closed its Silverdale
alehouse in September, after failing to draw
enough customers at the mall. Mike and Kathleen Hale, who’ve
lived in Kitsap County since 1986, said they wouldn’t rule
out another Hale’s location on the peninsula.

“It’s a massive market,” SuperCritical CEO Craig Husa said
during a presentation to the port commission Tuesday night. “We’ve
got great technology that disrupts that massive market.”

The startup has developed power
plants that harness supercritical
Co2, rather than traditional steam, to power turbines and
generate electricity.

A key advantage of the technology is it’s
compact. SuperCritical claims it can produce a
5-megawatt plant small enough to fit in a 40-foot
shipping container.

The company’s systems can be used
to convert waste heat at industrial facilities into
electricity, which can help offset the facility’s power
needs.

For now, SuperCritical is a scrappy startup with a tiny team.
Its leaders see unlimited potential for growth.

“This is one of the reason’s we’re excited to be here at the
Port of Bremerton,” Husa said. “We’ve got great space, we’ve got
potential to grow, there’s a potential labor force that’s strong in
the area, we’ve got access to shipping… it’s really is an awesome
place for us to be.”

All of this was music to the ears of port officials.

“This is something we could see growing really big,” port CEO
Jim Rothlin said. “… we talk about trying to find what’s going to
be our niche here. This could possibly be our niche… nowhere else
has this kind of thing.”

SuperCritical is starting small at the port. The company has
agreed to lease a 6,000-square-foot building in Olympic View
Industrial Park for $2,880 a month. The initial term is for two
years, with the option for 10 two-year extensions.

The port is obligated to install a security fence in January
2016 and upgrade the building’s electrical system. The cost of
those improvements is estimated at $53,000.